Arts news

• Has The Edinburgh Fringe Regained Its Magic? Or Is It An Atrocity of Chaos?

  15-08-2023 23:27 via theguardian.com
  
  Depending on whom you listen to, fringe 2023 is an atrocity against mental health, social justice and artists’ bank accounts. Or it is a phoenix-from-the-ashes rebirth of the world’s biggest arts festival after the Covid hiatus and last year’s tetchy, partial re-emergence. – The Guardian
  
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• Bloom Is Off The Podcasting Boom: Podcast Company Quits “Onerous” Public Radio Deal

  15-08-2023 23:01 via theverge.com
  
  When American Public Media and Audacy’s Cadence13 announced a three-year “strategic” partnership in the summer of 2021, it seemed like a perfect union between public and commercial radio. – The Verge
  
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• The Harder They Fall: New Tucker Carlson Bio Sells Only 3000 Copies

  15-08-2023 22:31 via theguardian.com
  
  According to Publishers Weekly, Tucker by Chadwick Moore sold just 3,227 copies in its first week after publication on 1 August. – The Guardian
  
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• Big Publishers See Big Money In AI (But Little Publishers Will Be Shut Out)

  15-08-2023 22:01 via niemanlab.org
  
  Large tech companies will pick and choose what publishers they want to negotiate with and how much they’re willing to hand over. The numbers will be secret, and they’ll be heavily weighted toward the biggest players. – NiemanLab
  
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• Amazon Says It Will Use AI To Help Review Products

  15-08-2023 21:32 via techcrunch.com
  
  The retailer says it will use the new technology to provide a short paragraph of text right on the product detail page that will highlight the product features and customer sentiment mentioned across the customer reviews. – TechCrunch
  
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• So, Who’d Have The Perfect Voice For Reading Poetry Written By An A.I. Robot? Werner Herzog, of Course

  15-08-2023 21:02 via nytimes.com
  
  “For the editors of I Am Code: An Artificial Intelligence Speaks, the answer was obvious. … ‘They had an understanding that I wasn’t the best choice — I was the only choice,’ Mr. Herzog said. ‘When you look at the text, it becomes quite self-evident.'” – The New York Times
  
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• Small Washington Town’s Library Under Siege By Book-Banners

  15-08-2023 20:32 via seattletimes.com
  
  The library director and board initially refused to move any of the books. But, more recently, the library has tried to assuage its adversaries, eliminating the entire young adult nonfiction section and intermingling those books with adult books.It has not worked. – Seattle Times
  
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• An Existential Ethics Review At America’s Leading Medical Museum

  15-08-2023 20:05 via theguardian.com
  
  “In common with many other museums, the Mütter is plagued by questions around the rights of acquisition of its collection. Earlier this year, the Mütter took down its collection from its website and began an audit of 35,000 specimens in its archive of anomalies and oddities.” – The Observer (UK)
  
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• Brice Marden obituary

  15-08-2023 19:51
  
  American painter who combined constant experimentation and a resistance to fashion in his workIn 1966, the artist Brice Marden, who has died of cancer aged 84, exhibited a canvas called The Dylan Painting in his first solo show, at the Bykert Gallery in New York. Six years earlier, Marden had married Pauline Baez, older sister of the singer Joan. Through his sister-in-law, he met a young Greenwich Village folk musician called Bob Zimmerman, and found him “a fantastic guy”.It was 1962
  
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• Iowa School District Used ChatGPT To Decide Which Books To Ban

  15-08-2023 19:31 via thegazette.com
  
  Each of these texts was reviewed using AI software to determine if it contains a depiction of a sex act. Based on this review, there are 19 texts that will be removed from our 7-12 school library collections and stored in the Administrative Center while we await further guidance or clarity. – Iowa Gazette
  
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• Stand-Up Comedians Vs. A.I.: Can The Bots Win?

  15-08-2023 19:03 via nytimes.com
  
  “Until recently, comedy has been seen as so quintessentially human that it was assumed A.I. would kill humanity before it would at a club. But since the rise of large language models like ChatGPT less than a year ago, this common wisdom no longer applies.” – The New York Times
  
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• TikTok Says It Will Let Users Opt Out Of Its Algorithms In The EU

  15-08-2023 18:32 via wired.com
  
  TikTok’s algorithm learns from users’ interactions—how long they watch, what they like, when they share a video—to create a highly tailored and immersive experience that can shape their mental states, preferences, and behaviors without their full awareness or consent. – Wired
  
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• A Daughter of Korean Immigrants To America Could Win Olympic Gold In Breakdancing

  15-08-2023 18:06 via espn.com
  
  “Sunny Choi is now one of the 10 best B-girls in the world, and won silver at the 2022 World Games. Her ascendence comes at a time when break dancing’s platform has never been bigger and the stakes have never been higher.” – ESPN
  
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• Traditional TV Watching Falls Below 50 Percent For First Time As Streaming Dominates

  15-08-2023 17:31 via variety.com
  
  In July, cable’s share fell below 30% for the first time, losing a full share point to stand at 29.6%. Broadcast usage fell 3.6%, down 0.8 points. On a year-over-year basis, broadcast viewing was down 5.4% (-1.5 points), and cable viewing was down 12.5% (-4.8 points). – Variety
  
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• Parisian Booksellers Explain How They Are Preparing For The 2024 Olympics

  15-08-2023 17:01 via theparisreview.org
  
  “With a diving suit and helmet, and with dark glasses, earplugs, and a plan for retreat to the countryside.” “We’ll of course have a few books, but in a corner.” “We have other things to think about.” “Maybe we’ll do one window about sports. Maybe some French flags.” – The Paris Review
  
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• “Barbie” Arrives In The Cinemas Of Saudi Arabia

  15-08-2023 16:34 via nytimes.com
  
  “That this was happening in Saudi Arabia — one of the most male-dominated countries in the world — was mind-boggling to many in the Middle East. … Moviegoers rushed to prepare Barbie-pink outfits. Some theaters scheduled more than 15 showings a day.” – The New York Times
  
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• Directors Of Theatres All Over Britain Are Resigning Because The Job Is So Miserable These Days

  15-08-2023 16:02 via theguardian.com
  
  “While larger institutions … can still attract and keep good artistic directors, regional theatres and arts centres are struggling. A job heading of one of these offers the same stress, accountability and long hours, but on a smaller budget and with a smaller salary.” – The Observer (UK)
  
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• SAG-AFTRA Will Stop Granting Strike Waivers For Indie Productions

  15-08-2023 15:35 via variety.com
  
  “SAG-AFTRA (had) argued that (waivers) supported the strike because they involved independent producers who agreed to all of the union’s demands. But they have caused considerable backlash within the union, as some members felt they undermined the strike’s overall impact.” – Variety
  
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• Opera Philadelphia Cuts Budget And Staff, And Its Director Will Step Down

  15-08-2023 15:03 via inquirer.com
  
  The company has cut this year’s budget by about 20% and eliminated six positions. One of this season’s productions, Joseph Bologne’s The Anonymous Lover, is postponed to 2024-25, the Opera Philadelphia Channel (paid streaming) will be shuttered, and President David Devan will depart next summer. – The Philadelphia Inquirer
  
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• London Evening Standard Is Hemorrhaging Money And Would Shut Down Without Its Deep-Pocketed Owner, Say Auditors

  15-08-2023 14:36 via theguardian.com
  
  “The (paper) has lost a further £16m and said it was reliant on extra funds from its owner, Evgeny Lebedev, to continue publishing. … The business model of printing hundreds of thousands of free newspapers aimed at commuters has been hit hard, (with) little sign it will revive anytime soon.” – The Guardian
  
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• National Gallery In London Extends Its First Pay-What-You-Wish Program

  15-08-2023 14:01 via fadmagazine.com
  
  While admission to the general collection and some special shows is free, the NG does charge for certain special exhibitions. Last year, amidst the UK’s cost-of-living crisis, the museum began a name-your-price scheme on Friday evenings; that has now been extended through January. – FAD Magazine
  
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• ‘They don’t come with rules’: David Antonio Cruz celebrates queer chosen families

  15-08-2023 12:18
  
  The Philadelphia-born artist has created a new exhibition focused on the importance of chosen families within the LGBTQ+ community“Chosen family are the folks that love you undeniably, unconditionally,” artist David Antonio Cruz tells the Guardian. “They don’t come with restrictions or rules.” He’s been thinking about chosen family a lot lately, as his new solo show at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania is all about tracing his
  
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• When the music stops: how the Taliban’s fear of art is killing Afghan culture

  15-08-2023 07:00
  
  Musicians and artists are living in a state of terror. Can the country’s identity as a ‘crossroads of cultures’ survive a policy of strict repression?When the Taliban moved closer to Kabul in the early days of August 2021, a series of unusual advertisements flooded the shopping pages on Afghan social media. Musicians were putting their instruments and equipment – the tools of their trade – up for sale.Many were being offered for a fraction of what they were worth. Y
  
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• Nonprofit Arts Orgs and Sandcastles. Now That the Waves Have Hit, Maybe It’s Time to Swim Awhile

  15-08-2023 02:01 via artsjournal.com
  All the pandemic did was rush oblivion along.
  Photo by Vlad Fonsark on Pexels
  The end of this version of the nonprofit arts industry was coming relatively soon, even before the pandemic. It’s a system borne of privilege and elitism, forgetting that art all by itself is not a charitable mission, no matter whether it’s in the IRS code or not (it’s not). In the largest organizations, survival is based not on how many people take part, but on how many rich people donate. That&rsquo
  
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• Black Lives Matter (but so does accuracy): Botched NY Times Report of the Met’s Landmark Acquisition

  15-08-2023 01:18 via artsjournal.com
  Get it fast, but get it wrong?
  I did a double take at the New York Times‘ front-page report
  
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• How A Big Investment Bank (Morgan Stanley) Breaks Down The Art Market

  15-08-2023 00:01 via news.artnet.com
  
  As the fine-art auction market has grown more and more financialized in recent years, it has also grown more and more opaque to nearly everyone except the auction houses. – Artnet
  
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